


When In Doubt, Throw Money At It

by Cleopatra (empressofthelight)



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Kaiba's violating a million HR policies, Kaibaland, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2016-11-06
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:23:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8485681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empressofthelight/pseuds/Cleopatra
Summary: Joey get's a job working at Kaibaland. When Kaiba finds out he wants him fired, but then he changes his mind. It would be cheaper (and much more fun) to make him quit.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [blessing332](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blessing332/gifts).



> This fic is going to be slow updating. I want to wrap up a few of my other ones before I continue on with this one. I hope you like it Blessing332! I didn't forget about you <3

Joey paced along the game shop’s front counter, mindful of Yugi watching at his every movement, “Stop lookin at me like that Yug’. It’s bad luck.”

“I already told you, Joey,” he smirked, “There’s no way you are going to get that job. Kaiba hates you and he personally checks everyone who works at Kaibaland.” Joey’s frown deepend. Apparently, at some point Yugi and the spirit switched while he was pacing. “If you spent half as much time actually applying yourself to a real profitable skill, as you do failing at playing duel monsters, you’d already have a job.”

“Thank you for the pep talk, Yami...I think…” Joey blinked, trying to make sense of what Yami just said. Fuck it.

“Any time, Joey,” he grinned before turning around to head to the back of the shop.

Joey blinked in confusion again. Why was he going to the back? He was the only one minding the shop that day since Yugi’s grandpa was out of town for some ‘convention’. Joey groaned and jumped over the counter. He’d help Yugi out this one time. It wasn’t like he could leave until nine anyway since he gave the hiring manager the shop number to call if he got the job. Resuming his pacing now behind the counter, Joey almost jumped out of his skin when the phone rang, “Game shop. How can I help ya?”

“Oh, sorry. Wrong number,” the familiar voice of the hiring manager murmured into the phone.

“Oh nah Mr. Lee. This is Joey Wheeler,” he chuckled with little amusement and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Well then, Mr. Wheeler, Congratulations. You’re hired.”

“Thank ya so much man! I can’t tell ya h-”

“But we need you to come in immediately. Is that an issue?”

Joey glanced up around the shop wondering where the fuck Yugi wandered off to, “Sure no problem. Be there in ten.”

“Excellent,” then the line went dead.

“Yugi! Pharaoh, where the fuck are you? I have to leave now! I need to talk ta Yug’.” Joey yelled back hoping to see him.

He didn’t get an answer at first so Joey started to walk back when he heard Yami’s laughter. “You sure know how to make a good joke Yugi… yes I know and I thought it was funny you don’t need to tell me the joke again… seriously Yugi it was funny the first time.”

“Hey! I need ta talk ta Yug’.” Joey smiled in relief. “They called! I got the job!”

He blinked once, then burst into laughter, “Well set up joke Yugi. Did you get Tristan to call? He’s such a funny guy. You never cease to amuse me,” then he turned around and started walking to the back. 

“Man I’m being serious. I need to borrow the car.”

The spirit waved him off or maybe he was waving Yugi off, “The joke is finished, Yugi. You can let it go for real now.”

Joey sighed, watching Yami chuckle and snicker all the way to Yugi’s room. Running his hands through his hair, he tried to think of some way to get to Kaiba land without the car but he kept coming up with blanks, “Damn it!”

“Here’s the keys Joey,” Yugi huffed running up to him.

“How did ya-?”

“You’re going to be late,” Yugi blushed, “Grandpa and I will pick up the car in an hour and then I’ll be picking you up, okay?”

Raising a questioning brow, Joey grabbed the keys from Yugi and bolted out the door. He’d ask Yugi about it later. Joey drove like a madman, changed into the ‘uniform’ at record speed and stood in front of Mr. Lee trying his damndest to pay attention to the man’s monotone voice, “Any questions, Mr. Wheeler?”

“Nah. I think I can handle sittin’.”

The man nodded his head and left the booth, leaving Joey and his coworker staring after him. His co-worker, a young enthusiastic teenager who talked way too fast for him to understand a word she said, smiled and puffed out her chest, “Ready when you are Joey!”

Truth be told he was not ready at all. This booth was a dunking booth. A very special dunking booth. Kids came up to buy a set of balls to throw at moving duel monster cut outs to accumulate a certain number of points. After they hit that number, he would be dunked in ice water. Ice water. No one can fathom how cold ice water is unless they are actually fucking in the water. It’s cold and he was pretty sure a week of working here and he’d no longer be able to reproduce. It might not be as bad if he were wearing decent clothes but the ‘uniform’ was heavy and bulky to resemble some kind of duel monster that he didn’t know or care about. The room he changed in didn’t have a mirror so he couldn’t really see what it was anyway. Not that he had much of a choice...he needed the money and this was the only place that would hire him. 

Joey climbed up the ladder to the platform he needed to sit on in the ‘uniform’. He wondered if the rickety platform would buckle whether the kids hit anything or not because of how heavy the suit was, “Alrighty, I’m ready.”

\------

Seven and a half hours later he regretted those words. He was freezing despite the temperature being 101 degrees outside. Tea, Tristan, Duke and even Yuugi all came by to take a shot at him. Yugi won of course...but then again he was pretty sure it was Yami. He might be cold and hate his life but at least at the end of the day he had a job. A job that was done in 30 minutes. He worked an entire shift without seeing Kaiba one time, “Good day Joey. You can get down and change now. When you’re done let me know so I can show you how to count down and close the booth.” Cara (after 7 hours of hearing her ramble he finally caught her name) called up to him.

Joey nodded, even though he knew she couldn’t tell because of his shaking. He almost slipped down the ladder twice but managed to get down to the bottom. The first thing Joey did was take off the heavy, sopping wet uniform coat. The hot air meeting his frigid skin felt like heaven. “So much better,” he muttered to himself, when the devil caught his peripherals.

“Wheeler? Mokuba why is Wheeler here? Have him escorted off the property,” Seto commanded, gliding past Joey and refusing to look in his direction.

“Can do, big brother. You heard him, Joey, get the hell…” Mokuba trailed off, frowning as he studied Joey’s appearance before catching up with Kaiba, “Uh...Big brother...we have a problem.”

“If he won’t leave, call the police,” Kaiba responded with indifference until Mokuba tugged on his jacket tail.

Joey watched Kaiba stop and sigh in frustration. He turned on his heels and stormed past Mokuba with a murderous scowl aimed directly at him. Oh shit...he was in big trouble, “What the hell are you wearing?”

“Uh…” Joey burried his hand in his sopping wet blond hair.

Before he could answer, Mr. Lee walked up with a warm smile, “Mr. Kaiba. I-”

“Why is  _ that _ holding Kaiba Corp property?” 

Mr. Lee blinked in confusion, glancing between Kaiba and him. “Mr. Wheeler is the new rush employee you asked me to hire...don’t you remember that?” Kaiba opened his mouth to shout something back but Mr. Lee kept his confident smile. “Your specific qualifications for the position are: anyone willing to show up and work. He’s here and he’s worked an entire shift. He’s the only one I called, willing to be here in ten minutes.”

Joey wasn’t sure if he should be happy about this kind of help. Kaiba narrowed his eyes at Mr. Lee hesitating for only a moment. “Then fire him,” Joey let out a shaky breath, assuming that was the end of it, when Kaiba hummed. “On second thought…” and then he just walked away.

Joey stood there, mouth hanging wide open. What? Kaiba’s coat waved behind him showing no sign of slowing down. Mokuba had to run to catch up. Mr. Lee chuckled, turning to leave as well, “Well I guess we’ll see you tomorrow Mr. Wheeler.”

\--------------

Joey chugged every last drop of water out of the 64oz travel mug Yugi gave him as a ‘congratulations for not getting fired on the first day’ gift two weeks ago. Why the fuck was it so damn hot? 

“Alright man. All set.”

“Took ya long enough Mac,” Joey laughed, hitting the buttons on the control panel for the coaster. 

The clang of metal and ticking of belts filled the platform and soon the coaster car speed off replaced by yet another filled with tourists, local families, and rowdy kids. Joey cracked his typical goofy grin at them as they poured out of the car. The smell of popcorn, hot dogs, B.O. and puke wafted past him.Gritting his teeth at the young woman holding her stomach, Joey’s own stomach twisted. Shit.

“Not it!” Mac laughed, pulling Joey out of the control booth. 

“Shit…” Joey cursed under his breath and trudged over to the small cabinet behind the control booth. 

Pulling out a packet of what he could only describe as mulch, he made his way to the car she got out of. Sure enough, puke was everywhere. As if cleaning up puke wasn’t bad enough, Joey heard a heavy set woman complain to her friend from behind him, “This job can’t be that hard. We’ve been standing in this line forever. You’d think they’d move faster.”

Day’s like this Joey wanted to quit. As soon as he finished dealing with this he’d have to explain to the woman that the lap belt wouldn’t go around her. That was going to be a really fun conversation to have. His life was going to be on the line and he hadn’t even gotten paid yet. Mac got paid, Cara got paid, but here he was, working his shift and nothing. He kind of expected Kaiba to pull this shit but at the same time he really hoped not. Bending down to mop up the absorbed disgustingness, he muttered under his breath, “This is what I get for trying to-” 

Out of nowhere, something hard hit him square in the back of the head with so much force it pushed him off balance and he almost landed in the remainder of the puke mulch. Raising a hand to the back of his head and turning to see what hit him, Joey was furious. On the ground behind him was a bundled wad of twenty dollar bills. At first he thought Mac threw it at him but then he caught site of Kaiba standing beside Mac looking particularly proud of himself. Joey shot up and growled at him, “What the hell was that for Money bags?”

Kaiba smirked, “It’s pay day isn’t it?” Shrugging his shoulders, he turned around to walk away.

“I could have a concussion you jerk!”

“You need a brain first, mutt.”

“Of all the f-”

Mac leaned out, blocking his view of Kaiba’s back and making the kill gesture at him. That’s when Joey realized everyone was staring at him. Blushing like mad, Joey crouched back down and  snatched up the money. He quickly finished cleaning up the mess and stepped back so that Mac could start the coaster. Still feeling like everyone's eyes were on him, he tried to make himself busy until he could go home. The rest of the day a single thought ran through his head.  He was going to kill Kaiba. 

\-------

Walking through the parking lot with his hands shoved deep into his shorts pockets, Joey didn’t hear to a single word Mac said to him. He was too wrapped up in making plans to kill Kaiba. 30 plans later, each one better than the first, he grumbled to himself. “Fuckin’ asshole…”

“What?”

“Oh, Sorry Mac. I’m just ready to go home.”

“I hear ya. I bet your head hurts after Mr. Kaiba threw that at you. I still can’t believe he did that. ” 

Mac was a good guy. He lived in New York City in the United States and went to a fancy college there. Joey could never remember the name of it. He was enrolled in a internship program so that he could work at Kaibaland and take a few classes in Japan through his college. In many ways he reminded Joey of Tristan. They both goofed off at work and talked freely with each other. Especially when it came to complaining about their bastard of a boss. But Mac didn’t fully realize the history between Kaiba and himself. Not yet anyway.

“I can…” Joey, groaned, “I’ll see ya tomorrow Mac.”

“Yeah. If they don’t move you somewhere else.”

“Urgh…” Joey groaned, kicking some rocks along the asphalt parking lot, “That would be my luck.”

“See ya Joey,” Mac called back to him, jogging over to his car. 

Joey continued walking until a car pulled up alongside him, “Hey Joey. Need a ride?”

“Yug you’re a lifesaveh.”

Yugi laughed at him sliding across the hood to the passenger side of the car. He opened the door and dove inside but found it impossible to sit on the wad of cash. So he took it out of his pocket and examined it more closely, “Uh…”

“What’s that Joey?”

“You’ll never fuckin’ believe it Yug. I’m trying to work and that…” Joey trialed off mid rant when he looked down at the bundle in his hands, “What’s that?”

“Looks like a note,” Yugi said, with a quick glance at Joey before focusing on the road ahead of them.

Joey knitted his eyebrows together, squinting at the beautiful print, “Not bad.”

“What’s not bad?”

“I dunno. That’s all it says. ‘Not bad’,” Joey took his time counting each bill and frowned, “It’s all here… Why can’t he pay me like everyone else? What good did throwin’ this at me do?”

“He threw it at you?!” Yugi gasped, his eyes growing even larger.

“Yeah! Right in the middle of work.”

Yugi smirked, “He’s trying to get you to quit.”

“Yeah well fuck him,” Joey spat, crossing his arms over his chest.

They fell into an easy silence, a soft smile still on Yugi’s face while Joey stewed. Then out of the blue Yugi laughed. Scaring the shit out of him, “What’s so funny?”

“Kaiba threw it at you?”

Oh, it was the pharaoh, “Right at my head! Still fuckin’ hurts.”

“Of course you didn’t catch it. I would have paid to see that.” 

“Hey! Who’s side are ya on?”


End file.
